Benching 
college 

J 

Peh/ng  China 


Founded  I SOS 


A corner  of  the  Library  at  Yenching  where  books  and  newspapers  in  both 
Chinese  and  English  are  to  be  found  on  the  shelves  and  in  the 
hands  of  the  eager  students 


This  booklet  is  one  of  a series  of  seven 
describing  the  Women’s  Union  Christian 
Colleges  in  the  Orient  and  published  by  the 
Joint  Committee  on  these  colleges.  The 
ten  cooperating  Women’s  Boards  of  For- 
eign Missions  in  America  provide  the  main- 
tenance but  are  unable  to  secure  land  and 
buildings  which  rapid  growth  has  made 
necessary.  All  are  in  temporary  crowded 
quarters. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Laura  Spelman 
Rockefeller  Memorial  Fund  have  promised 
approximately  a million  dollars  toward  the 
three  millions  required.  This  conditional 
pledge  must  be  met  before  January  1,  1923. 
If  the  story  of  this  adventure  in  Interna- 
tional Friendship  and  the  appeal  for  aid 
seem  important  to  you  will  you  not  send 
your  check  or  pledge  to  the  Assistant  Treas- 
urer of  the  Joint  Committee,  Miss  Hilda 
L.  Olson,  300  Ford  Building,  Boston,  Mass., 
or  to  the  Treasurer  of  your  own  Woman’s 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  designating  a 
special  college  or  building  if  you  desire. 


Joint  Committee  on  Women’s  Union  Christian  Colleges 
the  Orient — 1921 


Yenching  College 

1905  — (“Just  Sixteen”)  — 1921 


This  Yenching  Girl  is  Saying— “Won’t  you  come  for  a walk 
through  our  old  Moon  Gate?” 


The  Doorway  at  Yenching. 


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The  bitter  question  was  flung  at  a Yenching  College  girl 
by  one  of  the  wet-eyed,  scarlet-cheeked  women  who  were 
crowded  into  a Peking  courtyard,  listening,  stirred  and 
amazed,  to  the  college  girl’s  burning  plea  that  the  women 
citizens,  a full  half  of  the  great  Chinese  republic,  arouse 
themselves  to  the  national  crisis,  shake  loose  from  the  nar- 
row ignorance  that  bound  them,  and  work  together  to  save 
the  nation.  It  was  the  challenge  of  the  New  China  to  the 
Old,  the  challenge  voiced  by  the  Student  Movement  of  1919, 
when  in  all  the  educational  centers  the  youth  of  China  threw 
itself  wholly  into  the  task  of  arousing  public  opinion.  The 
college  girl,  with  her  very  heart  in  her  words,  had  been  pic- 
turing China,  with  her  enormous  mass  of  four  hundred  mil- 
lion souls,  as  just  swinging  out  upon  the  world’s  highway, 
full  of  dim  new  hopes,  only  to  meet  foul  play  that  had  sent 
her  staggering. 

“And  do  you  know  why?”  the  girl  had  said,  leaning  for- 
ward to  catch  the  eye  of  every  grandmother  with  her  tiny, 
long-stemmed  pipe,  each  mother  with  her  baby  in  her  arms, 
each  round-eyed  little  maid:  “China  has  many  enemies,  but 
the  most  dangerous  ones  are  within,  not  without.  It  is  be- 
cause we  are  all  so  ignorant,  so  asleep.  Now  we  who  are 
awake,  at  last,  must  rouse  the  rest.  The  men  cannot  do  it 
alone, — China  needs  us.  And  we  must  do  our  share, — you 


It  was  then  that  the  woman’s  indignant  cry  rang  out,  an  un- 
conscious accusation  of  all  China’s  teachers  and  philosophers, 
from  Confucius  on.  For  thousands  of  years  they  had  glori- 


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YENCHING’S  ANSWER 

CHINA’S  NEEDS 


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CHINA  NEEDS 
HER  WOMEN 


“But  why  did  no  one  ever  tell  us  before 
that  it  makes  any  difference  to  China  what 
the  women  do  ?” 


and  I!” 


3 


tied  learning, — but  only  for  the  men.  Eloquently  they  had 
written  of  man’s  supreme  duty  to  the  state,  but  little  of  wom- 
an’s. What  difference  could  the  women  make? 

Christianity  came  to  China.  It  dared  to  say  that  the  wom- 
en in  China  mattered  as  much  as  the  men,  and  opened  schools 
for  girls,  to  prove  it.  It  proved  it  so  well  that  the  government 
proceeded  to  start  girls’  schools,  too,  so  that  in  the  larger 
cities,  at  least,  doors  from  kindergarten  to  high  and  normal 
schools  swung  open  to  them. 

CHINA’S  WOMEN  But  taken  all  together,  these  schools  were 
NEED  not  nearly  enough.  Enough?  Only  one 

EDUCATION  woman  in  a thousand  could  even  read! 

True,  ladies  in  jewels  and  exquisite  satins,  with  towering,  be- 
flowered  head-dresses  might  chatter,  behind  fairy  fans,  of  the 
strange  new  foreign  inventions  they  were  using,  such  as  tel- 
ephones and  electric  lights,  as  they  rolled  down  the  pictur- 
esque streets  of  Peking  in  a glittering  limousine.  Bronzed 
village  women  might  forget  to  turn  the  grindstone  over  their 
supper  millet  as  they  listened,  agape,  to  a passer-by’s  tale  of 
an  aeroplane  that  flew  from  the  blue-roofed  Temple  of  Heaven 
to  the  Temple  of  the  Sun.  Duchess  or  peasant,  familiar  or 
not  with  the  magic  of  Western  science  and  civilization,  neith- 
er of  them  could  read  or  write.  Who  cared?  A few  did  care, 
— and  none  more  intensely  than  the  Chinese  school-girl  who 
was  studying  and  thinking  her  way  into  meeting  China’s 
problems.  There  must  be  more  schools  for  girls;  slug- 
gish community  and  national  sentiment  must  be  stirred  till 
schools  and  lectures,  newspapers  and  books,  were  as  much  an 
every-day  matter  to  Mrs.  Wang  of  Tungchow  as  to  Mrs. 
Smith  of  Chicago.  It  might  be  a long  crusade,  needing  many 
leaders,  but  leaders  must  come,  and  from  among  her  own 
people.  A foreigner,  however  sympathetic  and  gifted,  could 
count  for  little  in  the  beckoning  task  compared  with  a Chi- 
nese woman  of  equal  gifts  and  equal  training.  Rare  qualities 
and  undeveloped  talents  the  school-girl  recognized  among 
her  mates;  but  equal  training?  Where?  In  all  China’s  in- 
tricate city  and  country  life,  the  evolution  of  four  thousand 
years  of  civilization,  there  were  no  modern  libraries  or  lecture 
courses,  no  clubs,  art-galleries,  Chautauqua  study  courses, — 
no  place  could  be  found  where  a girl  might  add  to  her  rich 
racial  inheritance  the  mental  and  spiritual  discipline  chat 


4 


might  develop  her  initiative,  her  courage,  her  knowledge,  a 
scientific  spirit  or  the  spirit  of  service.  Even  high  schools 
were  few.  Certain  favored  students  might  indeed  find  their 
way  across  the  seas  to  universities  in  England  or  America, 
but  how  few!  Some,  too,  returned  from  the  long  absence 
alien  in  spirit  to  China’s  most  intimate  and  fundamental  prob- 
lems. There  must  be  a better  way  than  that. 

And  so  Yenching,  the  first  woman’s  college  in  China,  was 
founded. 


HOW  YENCHING 
WAS  STARTED 


It  was  in  1905*  that  the  members  of  the 
first  college  class  matriculated  in  Peking. 
They  were  merely  a handful  of  girls,  tem- 
porarily using  for  college  quarters  some  buildings  of  Bridg- 
man Academy,  belonging  to  the  Woman’s  Board  of  the  In- 
terior (Congregational),  which  indeed  bore  the  entire  financial 
burden  of  the  little  Union  College  for  almost  ten  years, — but 
they  had  the  backing  of  three  other  mission  boards,!  and  the 
rather  awed  approval  of  a few  advanced  souls  among  the 
Christians  and  government-trained  educators.  It  was  not 
quite  according  to  Confucius! 

Outwardly,  too,  there  was  little  to  impress  a chance  visi- 
tor with  the  fact  that  here  was  a woman’s  college — in  China! 
None  the  less,  in  spite  of  cramped  buildings,  of  meager  ap- 
paratus and  library,  the  college  was  a success,  because  it  had 
the  spirit  of  a college.  The  eagerness  to  gain  of  that  first 
daring  Freshman  class  and  their  successors  was  matched  only 
by  the  desire  of  their  teachers  to  give,  and  gradually  the 
working  necessities  of  a college  were  acquired.  Microscopes 
and  reference  books  could  be  ordered  from  abroad,  but  the  ap- 
propriate curriculum  for  a Chinese  college  was  a matter  of 
thought  and  study.  Though  its  courses  of  study  have  al- 
ways been  the  equivalent  of  those  in  the  best  women’s  col- 
leges in  America,  they  have  needed  adaptation  to  the  Orient, 
to  equip  the  young  women  of  China  the  more  perfectly  to  ap- 
preciate their  own  civilization  and  to  minister  to  the  needs  of 
their  own  people.  So  it  is  on  a strong  foundation  of  scholar- 
ly knowledge  of  Oriental  history  and  economics,  art  and  lit- 
erature, that  they  acquire  the  educational  inheritance  of 
the  West. 

Blending  the  best  that  the  East  and  the  West  can  give, 


*Cf.  page  15,  Historical  Statement. 
fCf.  page  17. 


5 


Yenching  is  most  of  all  deeply  Christian;  it  has  never  clouded 
that  issue.  Only  genuinely  Christian  education  could  help 
China  at  her  sorest  need.  So  not  merely  in  the  Bible  courses 
in  the  curriculum,  in  the  impressive  chapel  or  Sunday  serv- 
ices, or  even  in  the  students’  Y.  W.  C.  A.  meetings,  and  the 
little  informal  groups  for  Bible-discussion  and  prayer,  is  this 
spirit  expressed,  but  in  the  whole  college  atmosphere.  Stu- 
dents coming  even  from  non-Christian  homes  and  schools 
have  felt  it. 

“We  would  like  to  join  the  Christian  Association,”  said 
some  of  these  Freshmen  to  the  Membership  Committee.  Sur- 
prised, they  asked  the  reason. 

“Because  you  are  doing  the  kind  of  things  for  people  in 
the  kind  of  way  we  would  like  to,”  was  the  answer.  And 
many  of  them  later  pledged  allegiance  to  the  Master  of  the 
Fellowship. 


THE  GROWING 
OF  YENCHING 


These  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  more 
and  more  students  have  come  to  Yenching, 
till  now  they  represent  seventeen  provinces 
and  Korea.  Numerically,  they  are  not  many  yet,  for  North 
China  is  proverbially  conservative;  but  the  last  two  years, 
particularly,  have  seen  a marked  increase.  Peking  itself  has 
been  the  political  and  intellectual  center  of  China,  under  Em- 
pire and  Republic,  for  centuries.  In  popular  Chinese  par- 
lance, all  roads  in  China  “go  up”  to  the  Capital,  and  little 
wonder,  for  its  high  old  walls  guard  stately  apricot-tiled  pal- 
aces, the  carved  white  marble  Altar  of  Heaven  with  its  blue- 
tiled  Temples,  and  the  venerated  Hall  of  Confucius.  Here 
have  started  the  movements  for  spreading  the  use  of  the  new 
phonetic  script,  that  “first  aid”  to  the  millions  of  illiterates, 
and  for  making  the  spoken  language  of  the  people  the 
language  of  the  newspapers  and  books.  Most  recently  of  all, 
the  so-called  “Renaissance”  movement  among  educated  Chi- 
nese, for  utter  freedom  of  thought  and  life,  sprang  from  a 
small  but  brilliant  group  of  Peking  scholars.  Peking  is  an 
ideal  place  for  an  institution  which  wishes  to  keep  in  closest 
touch  with  Chinese  national  life  and  thought,  and  when,  in 
1920,  Yenching  became  affiliated  with  Peking  University  (di- 
rected by  four  mission  boards)  as  its  Women’s  College,  and 
changed  its  original  name  of  “North  China  Union  Women’s 
College”  to  “Yenching”  (the  old  classical  name  of  Peking)  it 


6 


changed  its  course  of  study  also,  to  conform  to  the  regula- 
tions of  the  national  Board  of  Education  for  colleges  and 
universities. 

“Now  you  have  proved  that  what  we  had  heard  of  Ameri- 
ca is  true;  you  give  precisely  the  same  opportunities  for  study 
to  women  as  to  men;”  this  was  the  comment  of  a famous  gov- 
ernment educator  when  he  heard  of  the  affiliation.  For  the 
courses  of  study  in  both  men’s  and  women’s  colleges  are  par- 
allel, though  naturally  many  of  the  vocational  and  profession- 
al courses  are  different;  and  some  of  the  more  advanced 
courses  are  open  to  students  of  both  colleges. 

Five  years  ago  Yenching  outgrew  its  first  borrowed  quar- 
ters at  Bridgman  Academy,  and  the  Woman’s  Board  of  the 
Interior  purchased  for  the  use  of  the  college  the  only  avail- 
able nearby  site,  a charming  old  ducal  palace  whose  bricks 
were  laid  before  Columbus  discovered  America.  Through 
its  quaint  grassy  courts  the  college  girls  each  morning  walk 
from  the  chapel,  once  the  audience-chamber  of  an  old  emper- 
or, to  laboratory  and  class-room  under  curved  tiled  roofs. 
Fragrance  of  incense  of  by-gone  centuries  still  clings  about 
the  high  carved  god-shelf  visible  in  the  reading-room  of  the 
college  library,  and  some  of  the  faculty  occupy  the  old  fam- 
ily temple,  with  its  scarlet  and  gold  eaves.  The  past  has  laid 
touches  of  beauty  everywhere  about  the  courts,  which  form 
the  lovely  Chinese  background  for  the  earnest,  attractive, 
merry  girls  who  seem  to  enjoy  chemistry  or  tennis  with  equal 
zest.  The  carved  old  chapel  doors  open  easily  for  community 
lectures,  student  recitals  or  concerts,  or  serve  as  a dusky  set- 
ting for  a moonlit  pageant  in  honor  of  Wellesley,  Yenching’s 
beloved  Sister  College  across  the  seas,  whose  faculty  and  stu- 
dents are  so  generous  in  help  and  friendship. 

But  already  the  limited  space  inside  the  high  brick  walls  of 
the  little  campus  is  overtaxed  by  the  growing  needs  of  a 
growing  college,  and  the  place  for  a new  larger  college  home 
has  been  secured  outside  the  city  walls,  adjacent  to  the  new 
campus  of  the  Men’s  College.  It  will  be  hard  to  leave  the 
carved  gateways  of  the  old  palace,  with  its  intangible  atmos- 
phere of  years  of  splendor;  but  faculty  and  students  alike  are 
looking  forward  to  laboratories  that  shall  be  light  and  well- 
appointed,  of  dormitories  that  shall  not  be  chilly  makeshifts, 
of  a place  where  the  college  will  dare  to  grow! 

Yet  during  the  sixteen  years  of  its  life,  Yenching  has  de- 


7 


veloped  most  of  all  in  the  variety  of  ways  in  which  it  has 
answered  China’s  changing  needs,  whether  lying  under  the 
shadow  of  its  tall  tiled  gateway,  or  as  far  distant  as  the  prov- 
ince “South  of  the  Clouds.” 

PREPARING  Yenching  students  have  always  been  tre- 

CHRISTIAN  mendously  loyal  to  their  native  land,  and 

PATRIOTS  they  were  among  the  first  to  respond  to  the 

impulse  of  the  Student  Movement  in  1919.  Most  often  it 
had  been  a patriotic  purpose  to  serve  China  better,  that  had 
led  the  girls  to  come  to  college  at  all,  but  in  that  time  of  fer- 
ment their  early  purpose  caught  fresh  fire  from  the  nation- 
wide student  enthusiasm.  They  were  among  the  thousands 
who  waited  live  hours  before  the  President’s  palace  for  an 
audience,  who  marched  hot  miles  of  the  city’s  dusty  streets 
to  arouse  public  opinion.  They  counseled  with  other  stu- 
dent representatives  about  strategic  pressure  which  might 
be  brought  to  bear  on  corrupt  officials,  or  about  ways  of 
better  informing  the  ignorant  countryside.  After  these  meet- 
ings, non-Christian  students  were  heard  to  wonder  openly 
why  the  Christian  students  often  seemed  more  practical  and 
constructive  in  their  suggestions  than  themselves. 

YENCHING’S  The  whole  student  body  takes  it  for  grant- 
SOC1AL  ed,  each  fall,  that  the  new  girls,  whether 

SERVICE  from  Mukden,  Canton,  or  Chengtu,  Chris- 

tian or  non-Christian,  will  take  an  eager  interest  and  share  in 
managing  and  teaching  their  Half-Day  School  of  some  nine- 
ty poor  children.  And  the  new  girls  do ! 

Three  years  ago,  when  a flood  set  tens  of  thousands  of  hun- 
gry, homeless  people  wandering,  the  college  girls  asked  to 
care  for  thirty  starving  waifs  in  some  unused  buildings  near- 
by. There  they  fed  and  mothered  them  so  thoroughly  that 
when  a few  gaunt  relatives  appeared  at  the  wheat-harvest  to 
claim  them,  some  actually  did  not  recognize  as  their  own  chil- 
dren, the  rosy,  happy  little  maidens. 

This  past  winter,  with  North  China  in  the  strangle-hold  of 
the  most  terrible  famine  even  in  age-long  Chinese  memory, 
the  Yenching  students,  not  content  with  giving  the  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  they  raised  by  presenting  Maeterlinck’s  “The 
Bluebird”  in  Chinese,  sent  a scouting-party  to  the  nearest 
famine  region.  In  the  town  of  Wang  Tu  an  official  gladly  of- 
fered them  the  use  of  two  adjoining  temples  for  the  haven 


t 


they  longed  to  found,  themselves,  for  such  little  girls  as  would 
die  else,  or  be  sold  to  vulture-like  men  by  desperate  parents. 
The  entire  student  body  rallied  as  one  girl  to  support  the 
project. 

“We  can  easily  get  more  money  if  we  give  ourselves,”  they 
said.  So  two  of  the  more  mature  students  temporarily  laid 
down  their  college  work  in  the  emergency,  to  act  as  resident 
workers,  the  other  girls  securing  gifts  of  money  and  clothing 
as  well  as  contributing  two  weeks  time  each,  to  care  for  the 
two  hundred  and  one  famine  victims  in  their  refuge,  and  re- 
porting to  the  whole  college  at  chapel  on  their  return.  They 
have  tales  to  relate  of  bathing  and  feeding,  of  watching  the 
smooth  little  black  heads  bowed,  chopsticks  poised  over  full 
porridge-bowls,  while  childish  voices  sing  an  unwonted  grace 
before  meat.  Then  come  the  school-hours,  learning  to  make 
hairnets,  and  later  the  games  that  smooth  even  cruel  famine- 
lines out  of  the  sad  faces. 

In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  college  the  girls  conduct 
trained  playground  work  with  groups  of  street-children,  they 
hold  large  Sunday-schools  for  youngsters  of  various  neigh- 
borhoods, or  weekly  Bible  classes  for  mature  women.  They 
help  generously  in  community  schools  for  ignorant  women. 
After  a course  in  public  health  and  house  sanitation,  they  vol- 
unteered to  do  some  “friendly  visiting”  in  nearby  homes,  with 
the  hope  of  leaving  behind  a little  practical  information,  in- 
stead of  a formal  red  card!  Their  music  renders  service  fre- 
quently when  the  Glee  Club  and  students  from  the  large  Music 
Department  are  invited  to  assist  at  all  manner  of  public  edu- 
cational and  philanthropic  occasions. 


SERVICE  IN 

TRAINING 

TEACHERS 


In  the  end,  the  most  widely  practiced  form 
of  social  service  among  Yenching  grad- 
uates is  that  of  teaching.  “Teaching”  it  is 
called,  but  it  includes  not  only  direct  class- 
room work  in  mission  and  government  high  schools,  and  in 
kindergarten  training  schools,  but  service  as  school  super- 
visors, in  shaping  curricula,  assistance  in  teachers’  institutes, 
giving  lectures  to  women  in  temples  and  guild-halls  on  the  in- 
vitation of  officials,  and  acting  as  Leading  Lady  in  communi- 
ty matters  in  whatever  place  one  lives.  So  the  college  wisely 
stresses  its  Department  of  Education,  both  in  method  and 
practice  teaching,  and  there  are  important  plans  for  Model 


9 


The  Main  Hall  of  the  Women’s  College 


Chorus  from  the  Men’s  and  Women’s  Colleges  singing  together  on  the 
day  of  celebrating  the  union 


The  new,  but  empty,  site  for  the  Women’s  College;  who  will  erect  the 
first  building  here? 


The  Recessional  from  Chapel.  Students  with  seventeen  different 
accents  from  as  many  provinces  sing  and  read  together 


and  Practice  Schools  in  the  new  Yenching.  The  department 
is  under  the  care  of  Miss  Ruth  Cheng,  a Yenching  gradu- 
ate before  she  studied  further  in  English  universities.  Mrs. 
Charles  R.  Crane,  wife  of  the  recent  Minister  from  the  United 
States  to  Peking,  became  so  convinced  of  the  overwhelming 
necessity  for  preparing  just  such  teachers  as  these  for  un- 
schooled China,  that  she  generously  endowed  several  scholar- 
ships in  this  Department.  In  this  as  well  as  general  lines  of 
study,  the  college  needs  to  have  a larger  number  of  scholar- 
ships available  for  earnest  and  ambitious  students. 

WHAT  SHALL  Old  China  contentedly  read  the  classics 

NEW  CHINA  through  its  huge  horn  spectacles  for  some 

READ?  three  thousand  years,  but  those  much-ex- 

pounded  volumes  do  not  satisfy  Young  China.  Any  day  he 
may  be  seen,  hunting  over  the  book-stalls  for  books  on  mod- 
ern science,  history,  philosophy, — he  is  hungry  for  them  all. 
Who  but  college-trained  scholars  and  authors  can  investigate 
and  write  for  his  need?  Already  some  Yenching  girls  have 
done  good  work  as  editors  and  translators,  and  some  are  even 
now  writing  widely  read  articles  in  the  daily  press.  Peking 
University  is  keenly  alive  to  the  importance  of  equipping  its 
students  for  such  work,  and  is  planning  largely  for  its  De- 
partment of  Journalism  for  both  men  and  women. 

LEAVENING  THE  When  the  West  introduced  herself  forcibly 
NEW  SOCIAL  and  not  wholly  graciously  to  the  older, 
ORDER  more  conservative  Far  East,  is  it  strange 

that  intricate  social  and  economic  problems  have  resulted  from 
the  interaction  of  the  two  civilizations?  With  the  founding  of 
the  Republic,  even  secluded  women  scented  the  tang  of  lib- 
erty in  the  air  and  craved  a new  freedom,  a freedom  always 
fraught  with  danger  to  unaccustomed  feet.  Sometimes  stu- 
dents in  government  schools  try  to  express  their  new  sense  of 
liberty  in  hybrid  ways  that  bring  disaster.  The  hundreds  of 
students  returning  each  year  from  study  and  social  contacts 
in  Europe  and  America  have  added  their  element  of  unrest; 
and  many  wise  ones  prophesy  only  evil  of  many  departures 
from  the  old  folk-ways.  Yet  underneath  the  various  seeth- 
ing elements,  lasting  foundations  are  being  laid  by  the  Chris- 
tian Church  in  China. 

Yenching  is  glad  at  heart  for  all  that  her  graduates  are  do- 


12 


ing  in  administration,  in  education,  medicine,  literature,  as 
religious  workers,  social  workers,  lecturers,  in  social  reform, 
as  home  missionary  pioneers  in  distant,  lonely  fields,  as  Y.  W. 
C.  A.  secretaries.  In  a hundred  ways  their  patient  endeavor 
is  helping  their  sisters  to  meet  the  new  social  complexities 
and  changes  with  dignity  and  intelligence.  But  none  the  less 
constructive  is  their  work  as  home-makers  and  mothers. 
Comrades  of  their  husbands,  everywhere  they  work  together, 
quietly  weaving  a strong  fabric  of  community  life  out  of  the 
patriarchal  family  life  of  the  past  and  the  democracy  of  the 
present.  To  leaven  the  new  social  order  is  surely  the  great- 
est work  of  Christian  education.  All  the  direct  or  indirect 
training  Yenching  can  give  her  students,  whether  by  courses 
in  Education,  Sociology  or  Home  Economics,  in  society  or 
in  class  organizations,  by  debates  and  plays  and  pageants, 
by  athletics  and  music  and  social  service,  to  develop  a spirit 
of  initiative,  poise,  and  considerate  co-operation,  counts  in 
this. 


THE  NEW 
YENCHING 


Leaders  in  constructive  patriotism,  in  Chris- 
tian social  service,  in  education,  literature, 
journalism,  in  molding  the  new  social  order, 
— these,  then,  are  the  answer  that  Yenching  tries  to  give  to 
the  clamoring  needs  of  China,  the  part  she  tries  to  play  in  pre- 
paring the  alert  young  womanhood  of  North  China  to  do  its 
share  with  vision  and  distinction.  With  such  a splendid  task 
before  her  in  these  heartening  days  of  increasing  international 
friendship  and  understanding,  Yenching  is  sure  that  her 
friends  everywhere  will  see  to  it  that  the  college  is  no  longer 
hampered  by  the  constant  struggle,  such  as  she  has  endured 
in  past  years,  with  cramped,  deficient  laboratories,  a micro- 
scopic library  and  severe  limitations  in  equipment,  money  and 
space.  Nor  is  it  fair  to  the  good  name  of  Christian  higher  ed- 
ucation that  Yenching  stand  forth,  thus  handicapped,  as  its 
representative  before  the  Chinese  public.  President  Pendle- 
ton of  Wellesley,  on  a recent  visit,  wondered  at  the  fine  type  of 
Yenching  graduates  whom  she  met,  after  she  had  seen  the  in- 
sufficient college  equipment  with  which  they  had  received 
their  training.  Girls  with  a high  purpose  and  gifts  like  theirs 
deserve  the  best  Christian  education  can  give,  and  China  her- 
self is  too  distracted  just  now  to  understand  wholly  their  im- 
mediate need. 

For  the  needs  of  Yenching  are  fundamental  and  urgent. 


13 


The  old  palace  outgrown  means  that  building  on  the  new 
campus  cannot  be  delayed,  unless  the  college  is  to  be  cruelly 
stunted  in  its  unequalled  opportunity  to  help  China.  The  new 
dormitories  and  faculty  houses,  recitation  hall  and  labora- 
tories that  have  been  so  carefully  planned  by  faculty  and  ar- 
chitect, need  generous  gifts  to  transfer  them  from  blueprints 
to  solid  earth.  Yenching  is  asking  only  for  essential  things. 
A whole  initial  equipment  may  be  built  in  China  at  the  cost 
of  a single  palatial  laboratory  in  America. 

And  besides  this  immediate  need  for  buildings  is  the  ever- 
present need  for  new  teachers’  salaries,  for  scholarships, 
endowment,  a library  fund,  to  enable  Yenching  to  do  its  com- 
plete work. 

So  Yenching  asks  her  friends — the  friends  of  China  and  of 
education  everywhere, — to  help  her  meet  these  fundamental 
needs,  and  to  meet  them  now. 

Close  to  the  mountains  beyond  the  Peking  walls  the  wide 
new  campus  lies  empty  under  the  brilliant  sky,  bare  of  all  but 
gracious  old  trees,  and  ruins  of  brick  and  stone  that  mark  the 
crumbling  of  a prince’s  pleasure  park.  Yenching  bought 
that  new  campus  in  faith, — faith  in  you.  She  waits  for  the 
magic  wand  to  be  waved  over  these  fallen  walls,  that  the  new 
Yenching  may  rise  in  the  midst  of  this  ancient  landscape 
garden, — rise  in  simple  yet  stately  buildings  whose  curving 
Chinese  roofs  shall  shelter  all  that  is  needed  and  fitting  for 
the  pioneer  woman’s  college  in  this  land,  with  its  record  and 
its  promise,  and  its  brave  young  womanhood  looking  stead- 
fastly toward  the  China  that  is  to  be. 

The  magic  wand  is  in  your  hand.  You  can  make  their 
faith  come  true. 


Three  Educational  Leaders  of  New  China,  All  Trained  at 
Yenching 


14 


Historical  Statement 


In  1905,  at  the  American  Board  Mission  in  Peking,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  four  mission  boards  (see  page  17)  the  North  China  Union 
Women’s  College  was  founded  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Luella 
Miner,  who  has  remained  its  head.  Regular  students  have  been  ac- 
cepted only  on  examination  or  on  certificate  from  accredited  high 
schools.  Until  1920,  the  standard  course  was  for  four  years,  with  spe- 
cial diplomas  granted  for  two  years’  courses  specializing  in  Premedical 
work  (leading  to  matriculation  in  the  North  China  Union  Women’s 
Medical  College),  in  Education,  in  Religious  Education,  and  in  Kin- 
dergarten Normal  Training.  In  1920,  by  vote  of  the  Trustees  of  Pe- 
king University,  which  holds  a charter  under  the  State  of  New  York, 
this  Union  Women’s  College  became  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
for  Women  of  the  University,  its  name  being  changed  to  Yenching 
College.  The  course  of  study  was  thereupon  lengthened  to  six  years, 
to  correspond  with  the  requirements  of  the  government  Board  of  Ed- 
ucation in  Peking  and  to  that  of  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences  for 
Men,  so  that  the  college  course  is  now  divided  into  a general  Junior 
College  course  of  two  years,  and  a Senior  College  course  of  four 
years,  the  latter  including  many  distinctly  professional  and  vocation- 
al courses. 

The  college  outgrew  the  cramped  quarters  where  it  developed  in  a 
part  of  historic  Bridgman  Academy,  so  in  1916  an  old  ducal  property 
called  the  Tung  Fu  was  secured.  This  was  a beautiful  estate,  but 
hardly  adapted  to  any  extensive  future  as  a modern  college.  This  also 
being  promptly  outgrown,  in  1920  a new  campus  of  some  thirty  acres, 
adjoining  the  new  campus  of  Peking  University,  was  bought.  It  is 
planned  by  the  University  authorities  that  certain  large  and  expensive 
buildings  for  general  use,  such  as  chapel  and  central  library,  shall 
serve  all  the  students  in  common,  on  occasion;  while  space  and  expen- 
diture will  be  economized  by  the  utilization  of  certain  large  laborato- 
ries by  men  and  women  students  in  alternation.  In  addition  to  her 
proportionate  share  in  these,  Yenching  has  a definite  and  immediate 
plan  for  buildings  for  her  own  use,  as  follows: — 


15 


Building  Plan 


FIRST  GROUP 

Land,  wall,  fates  (gold)  $ 30,000 

Dormitories  for  500  105,000 

Administration  Building,  with  small  working  library  50,000 

Assembly  Hall  60,000 

One  Faculty  House  5,000 

One  Faculty  Club  House  7,000 

Junior  College  Recitation  Hall  60,000 

Kindergarten  Training  School  25,000 

Contingent  fund  60,000 


Total $402,000 

SECOND  GROUP 

Dormitories  $105,000 

Faculty  Club  House  7,000 

One  Faculty  House  5,000 

Gymnasium  and  Social  Hall  50,000 

Building  for  Fine  Arts  and  Museum  30,000 

Science  building  50,000 

(The  two  foregoing  to  be  built  in  Peking  University  quadrangle) 

Building  for  Home  Economics  and  vocational  training  20,000 

Dormitory  for  Model  High  School  25,000 

Centers  for  Community  Service  20,000 

Contingent  fund  55,000 


Total $367,000 


16 


Personnel 


Co-operating  Boards 

Woman’s  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America 

Woman’s  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Interior  (Congregational) 

Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church 

London  Missionary  Society  (Congregational) 

Christian  Association  of  Wellesley  College,  (Affiliated) 


Yenching  College  Committee 

CHAIRMAN 

Mrs.  J.  M.  Avann,  4949  Indiana  Ave.,  Chicago 

SECRETARY 

Mrs.  Lucius  O.  Lee  Room  1315,  19  South  La  Salle  St.,  Chicago 

TREASURER 

Louis  A.  Bowman,  Northern  Trust  Company,  Chicago 

Mrs.  G.  E.  Clark,  Evanston  Mrs.  Charles  K.  Roys,  New  York 

Miss  Margaret  Mead,  Plainfield  William  P.  Schell,  D.D.,  New  York 
Eric  M.  North,  Ph.D.,  New  York  Mrs.  Franklin  Warner,  White  Plains 
President  Ellen  F.  Pendleton,  Mrs.  Oliver  R.  Williamson,  Chicago 
Wellesley  College  Bishop  Luther  B.  Wilson,  New  York 

This  Committee  is  appointed  by  the  Trustees  of  Peking  University 
to  have  full  charge  of  all  matters  connected  with  Yenching  College. 
To  it  are  added  additional  representatives  by  the  mission  boards  co- 
operating in  the  college.  The  Trustees  of  Peking  University  are  in- 
corporated under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York  and  hold  in  trust 
for  Yenching  College  all  property  and  gifts  belonging  to  the  college, 
and  grant  degrees. 


17 


Members  of  the  Yenching  Faculty 
1921-1922 


(The  faculty  of  Yenching  College,  since  it  is  now  the  College  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  for  Women  of  Peking  University,  is  considered  a part  of 
the  entire  University  staff,  and  co-operates  closely  with  it,  but  its  mem- 
bers are  appointed  primarily  with  reference  to  the  specific  needs  of 
Yenching.) 

J.  Leighton  Stuart,  D.  D.,  President,  Peking  University 

Luella  Miner,  M.  A.,  Litt.D.,  Dean  of  Yenching  College,  (Oberlin) 

Mrs.  Murray  S.  Frame,  B.A.,  B.D.,  (Mount  Holyoke,  Hartford  Theo- 
logical Seminary) 

Miss  Jessie  E.  Payne,  B.S.,  M.A.,  (South  Dakota) 

Miss  Anna  M.  Lane,  B.A.,  B.S.,  (Nebraska  Wesleyan) 

Miss  Ruth  Stahl,  B.M.,  (Mount  Union  Conservatory  of  Music) 

Miss  Grace  M.  Boynton,  B.A.,  M.A.,  (Wellesley,  Michigan) 

Miss  Ruth  K.  Y.  Cheng,  (Yenching,  Birmingham,  Cambridge) 

Miss  Jean  Dickinson,  B.  A.,  M.  A.,  (Smith,  Columbia) 

Miss  Marguerite  Atterbury,  B.A.,  M.A.,  (Wellesley,  Columbia) 
Miss  Josephine  Sailer,  B.A.,  M.A.,  (Vassar,  Columbia) 

Mrs.  Cynthia  Zwemer  Wang  Ting  Lang 

Kuan  Huang  Ting  Kao  Yueh  Tsai 


18 


A scene  in  the  Chemistry  “Lab."  Can’t  you  almost  smell  the  chlorine  gas? 


Breakfast  at  the  Yenching  Famine  Refuge,  the  first  known  instance  of  such 
practical  social  service  managed  and  supported  wholly  by  Chinese  women. 


19 


Faculty  Needs 


(The  needs  for  additional  members  of  the  faculty  include  one  teach- 
er in  each  of  the  following  departments:) 

English  Physics 

Home  Economics  Arts  and  Crafts 

Religion  European  Languages 

Vocal  Music  and  Violin  Hygiene  and  Physical  Training 

Mathematics  and  Astronomy 


Statistics  of  Student  Body 

1920-1921 


Number  from  government  schools  41 

Number  from  Presbyterian  schools  23 

Number  from  Methodist  Episcopal  schools  20 

Number  from  Congregational  schools  16 

Number  from  other  Christian  schools  22 

Total  122 


20 


Ruth  Cheng,  head  of  the  Department  of  Education  at  Yenching 


